Since Barack Obama and his family visited Yellowstone National Park as well, there was just a little too much Secret Service for me and my camera. ;-) So, I decided to continue my photo safari trip to Banff National Park, where I encountered this beautiful, emerald colored lake. Technique: HDRI made using 3 of the 7 exposures (Smart object method) and then processed in PS with Nik Color Efex and curves.

Castle Mountain is located within Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies, approximately half-way between Banff and Lake Louise. Visitors usually only pull over to take pictures of wild animals, so they were kind of distracted when they saw me kneeing in the middle of the road, aiming towards Castle Mountain. :-D

Lake Louise in Banff National Park, October 2007.

9-shot bracketing, 6-frame panorama, totaling 54 exposures. Combined in Photomatix and then merged in Adobe Photoshop CS5. Final color corrections in Adobe Lightroom 3 and sharpening and resizing in CS5 with the Kenko Polarizing filter.

Nikon D300s, AF-S DX Zoom-NIKKOR 17-55mm f/2.8G IF-ED at 17mm and ISO 100. Velbon tripod, Manfrotto head.

Bow Lake, not quite yet melted with ice on the surface. Beautiful scene. Stopped by the roadside and scrambled down the slope to get some nice shots. About midday when this was taken. It was still very cold due to the altitude and ice even at midday... SONY A900 + KM 17-35mm + DRO +3 Advanced.